Going over 500 meters

telliott67 · May 12, 2016

I am going with a friend who is a member of TRA and want to get some airily footage, they have permission to go up 16700 feet. My friend asked if I could get some pictures of his rocket coming down,is there a way to bypass 500 meters?

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Meta4 · May 12, 2016

mikesmiley · May 12, 2016

If people keep trying, we're gonna find ourselves capped at 400'.

RocketBrew · May 12, 2016

Their waiver is specific to Class 2 High Power rockets.
I was going to do the same (at 500 meters), but will need specific approval.
When my schedule lets me get out to a club launch again, I am going to call the same tower that we activate the waiver with to see if I can get an okay to fly under the same waiver.
Don't know unless you ask!

RocketBrew · May 12, 2016

Even at 400 feet, it is difficult to get a meaningful shot of a launch. Will be mostly luck if the rocket angles toward the drone and close.
These are "mid" power launches, I shot them just after I got the P3P.

Mimoid · May 12, 2016

telliott67 said:
I am going with a friend who is a member of TRA and want to get some airily footage, they have permission to go up 16700 feet. My friend asked if I could get some pictures of his rocket coming down,is there a way to bypass 500 meters?

No, the P3 is capped at 500 meters max. This is a solid firmware limitation. You can possibly circumvent it by hacking into the Phantom by using some customized third party software, but I see no easy way of doing it. The thing is that you will most likely not be able to get any useful footage anyway. You would be better off using a long tele lens (possibly a telescope mounted camera).

//Thomas

telliott67 · May 12, 2016

Thanks for the input It was a thought and I see people out there going up 1000 meters right in there city. This was only a one time thing and was hoping to get no quite that high but close enough so the can post some of there launches. I don't want a 3rd party program it's not something I do normally but just for a couple of batteries if anyone knows a way please inform me

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Mimoid · May 12, 2016

telliott67 said:
Thanks for the input It was a thought and I see people out there going up 1000 meters right in there city.

That was possible with the old version of the firmware. You could climb to 500 meters, press RTH, and then initiate a new climb while still in RTH mode. You could thus climb to 1000m, or possibly more.

That loophole was eliminated in a later FW release as a security fix. You don't want to lose the RC signal with a bird suspended 1km above your head.

//Thomas